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Photos on this page
above this text by W. Poerner, below this text by Don Pirot
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Cambodia
Travel
Culture ..
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Cambodia
adoption,
Cambodia airport,
travel Cambodia,
Cambodia capital, Cambodia
culture,
Siem Reap Cambodia.
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-Cambodia today is a mayor player in the south east Asia tourist
market.
The historical
background at Angkor Cambodia is a huge magnet to almost
millions of travelers and tourist to Cambodia every year and
growing continuously. On top of it
Cambodia become a darling of all the international organizations
of the UN kind and NGO's because the government just don't
care what this people are doing.
Cambodia culture
and history is not only Angkor, they had a great culture
already before Angkor, but Angkor is the epicenter of all
tourism in Cambodia. In the last
couple of years Cambodia hotels, resorts an other
accommodation have been constructed in incredible numbers. But there is
still plenty of poverty in Cambodia, all this improvements
in the tourist business only reached a very limited number of
the Cambodia people.
The newly rich at
Phnom Penh, the Cambodia capital and elsewhere see their
fortune growing but almost no one is interested in the welfare
of their fellow countrymen.
-Whilst the temples of
Angkor
are great
architecture, actually a wonder pointing to a forgotten
world, there is so much more in incredible Cambodia. It takes
some the time to get a little bit
familiar with Cambodia. Soak up the hazy atmosphere of
Phnom Penh where the wild-west meets Asia ;
enjoy the national parks around Kompot; the solitude to be found
on the southern beaches and the magic of the untamed central
highlands.
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Cambodia is a
destination that shot up most travelers ‘must visit’ list as
soon as the terrible years of Khmer Rouge rule had lifted. Three decades of civil war have undoubtedly
tainted the land but you would never believe
it from the optimism and positive outlook of the
people you will meet.
To understand a little bit of Cambodia
and to meet some of the most resilient people in
Asia , you need to get off the beaten track. Why
drive from Siem Reap to Anchor Wat when you can
take a ten day trek or mountain bike the dirt
trails that lay deep in its boundaries! You get
to explore the less visited temples and meet the
people that live amongst them....the best guides
in the business!
Resent Cambodian history is centered around
the horrors of Khmer Rouge rule. In 1975, after
years of guerrilla warfare, the radical
Communist Khmer Rouge party, under its leader Pol Pot, seized power of Cambodia and declared
‘year zero’. They immediately abolished money
and private property, and ordered the entire
population of Phnom Penh from their homes and
into the countryside to cultivate
the fields.
Over the next three years an estimated 2 million
Cambodians died, many from starvation and
exhaustion. Many others were tortured and
executed for being supposed ‘enemies of the
state’.
You can spend time learning more about these
terrible years in Cambodia, through visits to the infamous Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes and Cheung
Ek, better known as the ‘Killing Fields’. It is
an incredibly moving experience, but
these are two visits you will be |
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glad to have made. During
your visit to Cambodia , you will barely meet a
single person who didn’t lose a member of their
family during these years, yet they are all
willing to talk openly about it with you. They
wish you to hear about it and see these places,
to ensure that it never happens again.
Further south still you’ll reach the wonderful
coastal town of Sihanoukville…explore the
national parks, the mangrove swamps and explore
the multitude of islands that lie of the coast.
NOW you’re ready to head east or west!
Author
Nick Pulley is CEO of Selective
Asia, a UK based specialist tour
operator running privately
guided itineraries in Laos,
Vietnam, Cambodia and
Thailand.
Visit
http://www.selectiveasia.com
for further information |
Angkor Wat and Monks Cambodia |
-Reducing
poverty in Cambodia
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Poverty in
Cambodia |
Cambodia changed forever on 17 April 1975. As the Khmer Rouge took
control of the country under the leadership of Pol Pot, stringent rules
of conduct were imposed on the lives of its people. Cambodia was renamed
Democratic Kampuchea and a four-year purge began in which the Khmer
Rouge regime tried to eliminate all signs of the educated classes. The
goal was to create an agrarian society.
The result was the genocidal killing of 20 per cent of the Cambodian
population. Through the use of torture and execution centres, such as
Tuol Sleng and the infamous killing fields of Choeng Ek, the Khmer Rouge
devastated an already poverty-stricken nation. The regime ended on 7
January 1979 with the invasion of forces from Viet Nam. Bringing the
Khmer Rouge leadership to trial remains a goal of the United Nations.
According to [now retired] Under-Secretary-General Kieran
Prendergast of the UN |
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Department of Political
Affairs, it has taken many years, but a court has been
established through the efforts of "the Japanese, the French,
the Americans and others ... and we are going to try and make it
work". |
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The eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is the first of the United
Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Royal Government of
Cambodia, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society
organizations (CSOs) are making great progress in fighting poverty and
rebuilding Cambodian society. New support from the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank and
hundreds of other organizations that work to reduce poverty and create
sustainable development are giving the Cambodian people new tools and
hope for the future.
Poverty reduction became the joint focus of the World Bank and the IMF
in 1999, resulting in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)--a
fresh approach that requires nations requesting concessionary
loans to develop their own poverty-reduction plan. |
Cambodia Childs
in poverty |
Cambodia Girl |
This document details the
specific steps that will be
taken to reduce poverty,
including: a poverty
diagnosis; targets,
indicators and a monitoring
system for poverty
reduction; and priority
public actions for a
three-year time period.
PRSP is known in Cambodia as the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS),
which received approval in 2002 and was initially implemented in 2003.
The Government included sectoral areas in the NPRS: agricultural and
rural development; child
rights; decentralization;
disability and
rehabilitation; disarmament
and demobilization;
education; electoral reform;
fishery and forestry
sectors; gender and women's
participation; governance
and transparency; health and
HIV/AIDS; .landmines and unexploded
ordinances in affected
communities; land reform;
microfinance; resettlement
and rights of affected
people; rights and |
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care of older people; the
rule of law; small-arms
reduction and management;
and trade policy.
Most NGOs and CSOs in
Cambodia operate
within multiple sectoral areas and play crucial roles in delivering
services to these
sectors
Developing a poverty-reduction plan
for Cambodia is a challenging undertaking. There
are many working definitions of poverty, which change depending on the
needs of an individual organization or country.
What makes PRSP unique
is that NGOs and CSOs are required to take part in Cambodia's development and must
have a voice in the development policy process. However, to include these
organizations in developing
Cambodia's PRSP is difficult
and also increases the
possibility of reducing
poverty of Cambodia people. These Cambodian groups
are often small in size,
operate in remote areas and
may lack the technology to
be part of a larger network.
It is important for
Governments to recognize
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Cambodia Poverty
Reduction |
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that these local Cambodia people groups have first-hand knowledge of poverty-related
issues in their communities, as well as the connections needed to
implement policies. PRSP development is further complicated by the lack
of information about its overall success, since it has only been
required for the last five years.
The language of choice for most PRSP documents is English,
regardless of a
nation's official
language, but it can
be difficult to
understand,
particularly for
NGOs and CSOs that
work locally. It is
important,
therefore, to
provide local
translations of the
working documents to
the people striving
to develop sound
policy.
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Khmer language
translations were
not provided in the
development of
Cambodia's NPRS, but many NGOs
and CSOs were able to participate in the process of developing a
poverty-reduction plan due to the efforts of umbrella organizations.
However, the timing, location and scheduling of meetings remain a
concern to them. For example, meetings scheduled in Phnom Penh are often
inaccessible to Cambodia people groups working in outer provinces, and cost is also a
factor. Simply funding transportation to attend policy meetings is
difficult for many of the small NGOs and CSOs.
A recent study on
Cambodia found that the age of a non-governmental or civil society
organization is a factor in the belief that the NPRS development process
in Cambodia was consultative. More established organizations viewed the
process as being less participatory, and since older organizations have
previously established poverty-reduction program, they might be less
willing to adapt to new policy requirements. Areas addressed by NPRS are supported
through the efforts
of umbrella
organizations, such
as the NGO Forum on
Cambodia and the
Cooperation
Committee for
Cambodia (CCC), each
with approximately
75 members.
Comprised of
local,
national and
international
NGOs and CSOs, they strengthen communication between
the various programmes operating in each of the country's 23 provinces. The NGO Forum on
Cambodia, based in
Phnom Penh,
is focused around a
single goal for
2004-2005: that the
rights of poor and
vulnerable groups in
the country are
recognized and
supported by
government and donor
policies and
practices and by the
wider community. The
organization has
been in existence
since the 1980s and
focuses on a variety
of issues, including
development, the
environment, land
and livelihood, and
many others that
relate to the
empowerment of
Cambodians. Mlup
Baitong, a member of
the NGO Forum, works
on the micro-level
to improve the
country's forestry
and environment.
With
about 80 per
cent of
Cambodia's
13.3 million
people
living in
rural areas
and directly
dependent on
natural
resources,
Mlup Baitong
strives to
increase
environmental
awareness
through
education,
training and
advocacy
programmes
at the civil
society
level. The
Buddhism and the Environment Project in
Cambodia
has created
a network of
several
hundred
monks in
Kompong Speu
and Kampong
Thom
provinces.
Drawing on a
strong
Buddhist
environmental
ethic, the
program promotes the
importance of environmental awareness. A unique cross-cutting
Cambodian project trains local monks about seedling germination, tree planting,
and water and fuel-wood management. The monks, in turn, educate their
local communities about environmental issues and the importance of
natural resources. Specifically targeting the NPRS goal of
Cambodian gender and women's
participation, Nyemo is an NGO member of the CCC, whose mission is to
provide vulnerable women with the means necessary to regain their
dignity and participate actively in the economic development of Cambodia. The organization provides economically marginalized women with
education and training as a means of empowerment. Nyemo offers women
support groups, education sessions, literacy and skill training, gender
education and children's services. It currently operates a restaurant in
Phnom Penh, called Le Rit's, that provides an opportunity for program
participants to further develop vocational skills. Attached to the
restaurant is a store and sewing workshop. |
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| Cambodian
genocide, Angkor, Angkor Wat, Asia, Phnom Penh, Bangkok,
Battambang, holiday Cambodia, Cambodian girls, hotels Phnom
Penh, Kambodscha, Kampuchea, Khmer, Khmer rouge, killing fields. |
Cambodia girl and pineapple |
The requirements of the World Bank and the IMF for a PRSP are still
relatively new, and full evaluations of the success of this new approach
to poverty reduction are not yet available. Cambodia is working to
develop a strong, sustainable economy and reduce the poverty that
infuses most aspects of society.
The inclusion of NGOs and CSOs in the
NPRS development in Cambodia opened the lines of communication between the
Government and service providers, and optimism is high among them that
the National Poverty Reduction Strategy can succeed.
Countries currently developing a PRSP
should note the importance of
using translated documents, scheduling meetings to encourage the
greatest level of involvement, and allowing NGOs and CSOs to fully
participate in policy development. |
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Cambodia's NPRS represents the
willingness and ability of these organizations, the international
development community, United Nations agencies and the Cambodian
Government to work as partners toward achieving the common goal of
poverty reduction.
Author Mitch Rosin works as an editor in education publishing and has
traveled
throughout South East Asia, with a special focus on Cambodia. He earned
a Master of Science in Public Service from DePaul University and a
Master of Arts in Education from New York University. This article is
based on his thesis, "The Participation and Influence of
Non-governmental and Civil Society Organizations in the Development of
Cambodia's National Poverty Reduction Strategy".
COPYRIGHT United Nations Publications -
COPYRIGHT Gale Group |
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